2015
Blood on Silk: Price Taker/Price Maker, 2015, as installed at Cementa 15 at Kandos, NSW Australia
Musings on being just a price taker (written during the development of this work)
I’m thinking about the way the market operates for a person who produces and sells their own blood or blood products and the possibility of similarities to the manner of operation of the markets for agricultural products . In particular the idea of being a price taker not a price maker.
Price takers are defined as those whose market activities have limited impact on the market. Their sales are so small it’s hard to notice whether they are in or out of the market. On the other hand a single player, even if large, is also hard to notice when in a crowded market. In Australia the reaction of many farmers and graziers to the lack of control inherent in being a price taker was to organise into larger groups to negotiate for higher prices for their produce. This doesn’t seem to have happened with people who produce and sell thier own blood.
In many countries only blood that is donated goes into the transfusion market. It is generally believed that donated blood has a higher probability of its risks of disease etc being closer to those described in the forms filled out by the producer i.e. someone who donates who has had a disease or exposure to risk in their past is more likely to reveal it. Blood products however such a plasma, openly operate in different manner even in countries where the focus is on non monetary payment or reward for the producer supplying their blood or blood products.( usually called donation). There has been a rise in US websites suggesting the selling of plasma as a way of bringing extra money into a household. One site suggested it could be up to $220 US a month. This is an excerpt from a website giving tips on how to get some fast cash . Tip number three on the list was 3. Give blood. Some plasma banks pay up to $35 per pint. In the United States, federal regulations state that an individual may donate two times in a seven day period, with a minimum of two days in between donations. DonatingPlasma.org provides details and a searchable plasma-bank database to help you find a plasma bank in your area. http://xfinity.comcast.net/slideshow/finance-fastcashtips/give-blood/
Since 2005 the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has constructed price indexes for Blood and Organ Banks . This index category is described by the BLS as measuring the price change associated with providing a specific set of services related to the collection, storage, and distribution of blood and blood products and the storage and distribution of body organs. It is not clear that this index must deal with payment to the producer, but as it is based on what hospitals are charged for these products you could presume those payments have been included but not described. Anyway economics is interesting (gasp).
The work consists of stacks of polystyrene boxes, some new and others used and unclean, labelled to suggest they are housing blood units for auction. Some of the boxes are sealed with medical packaging tape and have small video screens showing details of the blood types on offer. Each “lot” is casually labelled with details of the type of blood or blood product, the number of units, options for future supply and details of the reputation of the supplier, if known. The appearance of some of the polystyrene boxes raises questions about hygiene and safety, with the banality of the materials evoking desperation, the subversiveness of black markets and the makeshift environment of illegal activities. The videos showing the slow bleeding out of the letters and symbols of various blood types reinforce the validity of these concerns. Audiences experience a loud soundtrack of an auction reminiscent of a country livestock sale, which creates tension as the sound loop works through the 20 lots on offer. An example of the sound track script:
Lots three to six are going to be auctioned in one line (estimated price in your schedule is $3,900) for a total of 65 units of Platelets Pooled Leucocyte Depleted O Rh D+ve of particular interest is that they are all low Anti A and Anti B. Brought to us by a new player on the block, the Mediharmonic group. I think we'll be hearing a bit from them in the future. Rest of the details are in your schedule.
The installation itself is intensely claustrophobic. Within it, audiences experience a disjunctive immersive experience, connecting all the seemingly disparate elements into a core narrative that contests the economies of donation. This narrative is constructed through audience transactions, both emotive and physical, which provoke and challenge their ethical positions regarding blood as a commercial commodity. What creates the poignant debate for individuals is the possibility of donated blood being denied, while blood is sold in alternative markets
From an article written by Malcolm Whittaker in Realtime 127, titled ‘Art and a post-industrial town’ when Malcom wrote of an amazing performance by Alex Wisser in my work.
Alex Wisser’s The Support was a daily performance in which, acting as a human plinth, the festival co-director stood holding works made by Cementa artists. In one performance he held a styrofoam box, one of a number that constituted Fiona Davies’ installation Blood on silk, Price Taker Price Maker. Before him was a wall of identical boxes which, it was suggested, contained human blood and plasma and emitted a frantic audio recording of an auction. For an hour, eyes fixed directly before him and stoic as possible, arms outstretched, box in the palms of his hands, Wisser appeared to embody the struggle that the individual faces to effect change in a capitalist economy. He was not performing a perfunctory or ornamental task subordinate to the work, but actively sharing in it. The daily performances also gently reminded us of Wisser’s provision of curatorial and directorial support.
In the studio tour video below I outline all of the works I have made in and for Kandos and various Cementa Festivals. There is a discussion of this work in this video and in the in the Q and A session after the presentation. Thanks to Alex Wisser/Cementa for organising this series of zoom presentations, recording them and uploading the videos.